Timber eating termites cause damage to property such as buildings. There are numerous ways of killing such pests, however, it is not always easy to detect their presence. As a result, a building structure can be severely damaged by these pests before they are detected. The invention is directed to detecting pests such as termites or other insects, preferably before they cause appreciable damage.
The problem of detecting termites has been addressed in the past but without success. Reference may be had to U. S. Pat. No. 5,285,668 in the name of Robbins and Mueller that describes a system for detecting wood-destroying insects by sensing acoustic emissions generated by the insects as they feed. The major shortcoming of this approach is that termites are not always feeding. The inventors have found that termites may use extensive galleries to move between a feeding region and a nest. The system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,285,668 will not detect the termites in the galleries. Furthermore, acoustic techniques are prone to spurious signals due to ambient noise.
It is known to use microwaves to kill termites and other insects. This can be hazardous due to the relatively large amounts of high frequency power required to be transmitted in order to kill such insects. Furthermore, the microwaves are generally only used once the insects are detected which may be after the insects have inflicted large and noticeable amounts of damage to the building.